


Language of Flowers

by thanhbear



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-25 23:08:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17130458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thanhbear/pseuds/thanhbear
Summary: Kyungsoo is in a tough spot and needs to purchase flowers for someone special in his life. He needs the help of the employee at the flower shop to help him navigate around.





	Language of Flowers

Kyungsoo has never done this even back in the good days. The mat below his feet says, “Welcome.” He swallows and takes a step. Just having one foot in the place makes him feel out of place. His weight rocks back, away from the shop. It has been a while since he’s talked to other people. All of his time was spent working hard to make this possible. He tells himself he has to see this through. He needs to go in, buy something, and give it to his mom. She deserves something nice after all the grief he’s put her through. He has to do this.

He walks through the doorway. 

A loud sneeze emerges from another part of the shop. It’s a loud and wet sound that comes when you try to hold in the sneeze, but it explodes out anyway. Another sneeze comes, and then another. Kyungsoo’s hands curl up and unfurl repeatedly as he works up the courage. 

“Bless you,” he says. The voice barely escapes his throat.

Silence. It’s possible Kyungsoo wasn’t heard. This is typical by now.

“What was tha–Ah CHOO.” A distant voice replies.

Kyungsoo’s jaw almost drops. “B-Bless you!” He says again with more confidence in his chest. 

There’s rustling from the back. A head appears, popping over the shelves, and a pair of eyes searches around. 

It takes Kyungsoo a moment to realize this person is looking for him. People tend to not see him so he nips his instinct to let the person continue on their quest. He trudges across the store. His footsteps halt when the person sneezes again. 

_Maybe this is a bad idea after all_ , Kyungsoo thinks.

He turns sharply and faces the door. 

“Wait!” The person catches up to him. 

Kyungsoo turns his head and is eye level with a name tag. Chanyeol. His eyes drift up and he sees the man wiping his nose into his sleeves. 

“Sorry. I think the air condition just came on. I meant to greet you sooner,” Chanyeol apologizes. He holds out his hand but Kyungsoo just stares at it. 

Chanyeol quickly retracts his hand and scratches the back of his neck. “Uh. How can I help you?”

The dazed look in Kyungsoo’s eyes clears up. His mind runs blank no matter how hard he tries to grasp any tangible thoughts. “I’m looking to buy some flowers.”

Chanyeol’s chuckle pulls Kyungsoo’s drifting gaze straight back to Chanyeol’s face.

“Sorry,” he apologizes again. “But you’re definitely in the right place for that.” He gestures his long arms all around the flower shop. 

It was a stupid thing to say. Kyungsoo can’t stop hearing his voice replay in his head on a loop. If he could blush, he certain would.

_This is definitely a bad idea._

“Hey.”

He looks up and finds that Chanyeol is beaming down at him. “What are you looking for?” 

“Something for my mom,” Kyungsoo replies quickly so the thought won’t escape him again.

“What’s her favorite flower?” 

A good question… Kyungsoo thinks back to when he used to live with her. Each memory comes with noise and dust, and he struggles to remember a time where he took notice of any flowers. Surely, his mom loved them. At the very least, he remembers their scents. The issue makes itself glaring to him. He was too inattentive in the past, and now it’s too late to fix anything.

“I don’t know...” Kyungsoo says with shame.

“It’s fine. I don’t really remember what my mom likes either— I mean, yeah, I kind of do, but it’s more of an educated guess. Which is really the best any of us can do sometimes. Remembering small details can be hard, yeah?” Chanyeol rambles. Kyungsoo gets a feeling that the worker is lying to make him feel better. He bets Chanyeol knows exactly what flowers his mom likes.

“I don’t know where to start with a guess. –What kind of flowers do people buy to say sorry?” 

“Like when boyfriends mess up and need to say sorry? They always buy roses.”

Kyungsoo shakes his head. “It’s not like that. What about flowers that are a symbol of remembrance?”

He sees Chanyeol pacing from one nearby flower arrangement to another. He makes his way to the single stemmed flower section and stares at each flower intently.

“Does this seem like remembrance to you?” Chanyeol holds up an orchid.

“You’re asking me?” 

The subtle waves in the worker’s hair bounce as he nods.

Kyungsoo says each word with close attention so he doesn’t hurt Chanyeol’s feelings, “Um. _You_ … Work here.” 

“Oh, right.” Chanyeol laughs again but with his head thrown back this time. The laugh thaws out Kyungsoo’s initial frozen state. It shocks him to find someone so willing to laugh at themselves like this. But the energy from Chanyeol is so warm that it contrasts Kyungsoo’s coldness. 

A shelf of white Chrysanthemums peeking out from behind Chanyeol catches Kyungsoo’s attention. 

“We... Don’t really focus on flower meanings. Mostly composition and arrangements—” Chanyeol follows the direction of his customer’s stare. “I actually know about those.” He snaps his fingers excitedly. “Those are mostly for funerals and for mourning families. We should, maybe, stick with something that’s more for the living.”

Kyungsoo nods along while retaining a distant look. He remembers them despite how much time has passed. At the time, he was out of his body. The rooms were filled with tears, prayers, and flowers for far too long. 

“Forgive me if I’m overstepping my boundaries…” Chanyeol says.

The words are like a calling that pulls Kyungsoo’s attention back. 

The worker continues, “It seems like you probably haven’t seen your mom in a while, right? And you’re visiting her now so you wanted to gift her something.”

There’s a relief that the conversation didn’t take a turn for the worse. Kyungsoo wasn’t sure what boundaries Chanyeol was planning to cross. “Yeah, something like that. What led you to that educated guess?” 

The reference to Chanyeol’s earlier words isn’t lost on him. He smiles slightly before he replies, “You’re putting a lot of thought into the subtle meanings of something as small as flowers. So you really want to make a good impression. I dunno. The big backpack kinda says that you’re traveling too.”

Kyungsoo has completely forgotten the backpack is there. It doesn’t feel like it weighs anything at this point. “Something like that,” he repeats. 

The shop remains dead silent after that, aside from some awkward shuffling from Chanyeol’s feet. 

“Should I just let you look around by yourself?” 

“No,” Kyungsoo answers a little too quickly. Chanyeol’s eyebrows rise up. Kyungsoo stammers over various ways to start his next sentence. “It’s better if— It’d be— What I mean is— I can really use your help.”

Without another word, Chanyeol walks away and disappears behind an aisle. 

So much for that… Kyungsoo can always try again, another day, another place. Maybe even a different tactic. His days here are limited though. At any moment someone could come and take him away forever. 

Chanyeol reappears with a bouquet of white lilies and pink carnations. “Here.” He holds it out. “When I came back from a study abroad, I got these for my mom’s birthday and she loved them. The carnations are the flowers for January birthdays so we can actually swap those out for whatever fits with your mom’s birthday.”

Kyungsoo’s eyes widened. Flashes of his home being decorated with carnations came back to him.

( “ _Soo-yah, I’m so blessed to have you. These remind me of you whenever I look at them. I don’t know what I’d do without you in my life_.” )

“No, no. Keep them! Those are my mom’s favorites,” he says. His lips stretch across his face widely as he stares at the bouquet. When there’s no response or movement from Chanyeol, Kyungsoo looks up from the flowers and immediately looks back down. 

A flustered feeling creeps on Kyungsoo after seeing the soft smile on Chanyeol’s expression. He swears Chanyeol’s eyes were fixated on him but he didn’t get that close of a look. 

Chanyeol clears his throat. “Here, go ahead and take this then.” The bouquet is wiggled in front of Kyungsoo. 

“Can I get these delivered?” 

“Oh, no problem.” Chanyeol tucks the bouquet under one arm and grabs a paper card and pen off a little stand. He hands the card and pen to Kyungsoo. “Leave the address and your name on this.”

Kyungsoo hesitates. “Actually I don’t want to put my name on this. It’ll be a surprise, but not quite. I think it’ll be obvious it’s from me, but I want her to guess, you know?”

Chanyeol’s eyes squint as if he’s struggling on how to reply to that. “Can… Can I know your name anyway?”

“Kyungsoo,” he replies.

“Nice to meet you, Kyungsoo. Can you write down the address for me?”

“I’ll read the address out to you. It’s Seoul, Mapo-Gu, Gongdeok-dong, apartment 341,” Kyungsoo recites. 

He expects Chanyeol to start questioning why Kyungsoo’s keeping his distance, or make some remark about him acting strange, but he doesn’t. Instead, he starts writing down on the card, using his thigh to place the card on. Watching him become a balancing act is endearing in a way. Kyungsoo finds himself smiling at the sight of the worker who’s been doing his best to help from beginning to end. 

When Chanyeol finally looks up and meets Kyungsoo’s eyes, his cheeks turn a shade of pink. It’s similar to the carnations he’s holding, Kyungsoo notices. 

“So I have to be honest with you,” Chanyeol says.

Kyungsoo feels his heart in his gut again. Chanyeol has a way of using phrases that stirs up anxiety. 

“So I’m just a delivery guy who’s watching the store for my manager while she’s at the bank. The register’s locked down.”

This makes a lot of sense now that Kyungsoo thinks about it. 

“I can just give you the number to my KakaoPay. You don’t have give me any change back,” Kyungsoo says. 

“Okay, then! So the delivery from here to this address will cost about 10,000 won and the flowers are…” He flips over the price tag. “32,332 won.”

The amount that Kyungsoo has covers a fraction of delivery alone. He resists the urge to grab handfuls of his hair because that would make a scene. “I… How much is one carnation? Can you call for her to come receive the flower instead free of charge?”

“Just one? I should've asked you about your budget beforehand. Well...” Chanyeol scratches his head, looking at the flowers, then Kyungsoo, then back to the flowers. There’s a pain flashing across his expressions. It twists and contracts. He mumbles under his breath like he’s talking himself out of something. Or into something.

“How about this? It’ll probably be weird if I make a purchase without my manager here. Without the register working, I’ll have to hold onto the money and what if I lose it before she comes back? If I put it into my pockets, it’ll just look bad, yeah? Real shady stuff. Plus it’s my payday today, so if I just tell her to deduct the charges from the money I made this week, it’s really whatever.”

The rambling is reminiscent of their conversation earlier. Chanyeol is piling weak white lies together again. 

“Are you offering to cover the cost for me?” Kyungsoo asks.

“Something like that,” Chanyeol grins. “Your mom sounds like a really great lady if she raised a handsome son who cares about her this much. Sounds like a lady to deserves more than just one flower that she has to pick up herself.”

The word ‘handsome’ brands itself onto Kyungsoo’s brain, but he doesn’t have the guts to say it out loud and confirm that guy is flirting with him. If he had the opportunity to live here, he definitely wouldn’t accept an offer like that. But since he’s leaving at any moment, technically he can’t be indebted to anybody. 

“If you are sure about that, then thank you. I really appreciate it. I’m sorry I’m a bit useless.”

Chanyeol lets out that warm laugh again. “I think I’m the more useless one here today. But don’t mention it. We don’t get as much people coming in nowadays buying stuff for parents, so I’m happy to help you. Come back tomorrow afternoon and I’ll let you know how the delivery went.”

“I’ll try. Goodbye, Chanyeol. Thanks again.”

“See you tomorrow, Kyungsoo.”

===

_“Who told you to send me these flowers?”_

“It’s a surprise.”

_“I need to know who sent me these.”_

“It’s someone very special in your life! That’s all I’m allowed to say. I’m sworn to secrecy.”

_“I don’t have anybody who would give me things like these.”_

“Do you really _have_ to know?”

_“Yes. Please tell me, young man.”_

“It’s another young man. About this high.”

_“This is a prank. I don’t know anybody like that.”_

“Of course you do! He told me carnations are your favorite. Now how many people would know that?”

“You’re playing with me.”

“Oh. Um. Ma’am, I promise you I had this person come in and we spent a long time picking these out for you. He said he’s your son.”

_“Then it’s definitely a joke.”_

“Why would your son play a joke on you with a nice gift like this?”

_“Young man, my son is gone.”_

“Gone? Gone already? He said he’ll stop by today if he could.”

_“No, he’s dead.”_

“That can’t be… He said his name was Kyungsoo. He’s this tall with big eyes and lips that are shaped like a… A heart almost. He carried a red backpack that was almost as big as him.”

_“... My boy’s name is Do Kyungsoo. He passed away while he was on a trip with his friends. I told him not to go. I begged but he went anyway. So I’m not in the mood for anybody to bring this up again.”_

“I promise you I saw him, ma’am. He was looking for flowers to say sorry and for you to think of him by. What are the chances that he survived whatever happened to him and his friends?”

_“None. We buried his body last year. I need you to go now.”_

**Author's Note:**

> I know I've been promising a continuation for two other fics, but here is a completely different thing jsdsdkj. This was part of the Flash Fic Fest I created for my friends and myself to get our writing mojo back. I filled exactly 2 prompts before all form of self-discipline left my body. I wanted to post this because this is the sole evidence that I actually wrote anything in the year of 2018.
> 
> I realize florists don't look at flower meanings but here are some totally legit flower meanings I found on google and used for this one-shot:  
> CHRYSANTHEMUMS are traditional funeral flowers   
> LILIES symbolize that the soul of the departed has received restored innocence or peace after death.  
> CARNATIONS are the birth flower of January kids.


End file.
